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Published: January 22nd 2006
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Dancers at the Jueves Verbena in Masaya
These beautiful women performed in a traditional dance from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. The music and dancing is very energetic and uplifting. I have a hard time sitting still when I hear the music from the Atlantic Coast. It is more of a creole influence rather than the latin influence that you hear in the music on the Pacific Coast Hola familia and amigos,
Yesterday was Terry´s birthday, and also the birthday of the woman of the house where we have been staying. Today is the 15th birthday of the daughter Karla, so as I wrote before, we stayed for the big Quinceaño party. The preparations, decorations and all were just like a big wedding. The party was great fun, music and dancing. About fifty people attended. The kids were great dancers, and the old people attending were dancing as well, keeping right up with the youngsters. Of course us old people took more breaks.
We spent a couple of days traveling to some other towns after school ended on Tuesday. We went to Masaya, which is the shopping mecca of Nicaragua. We did not go to shop but rather to the the Jueves Verbena at the artisans market. This is a regular Thursday night dance exhibition where dance troupes from around Nicaragua come and perform traditional dances wearing beautiful costumes. We attended one last year and enjoyed it so much we wanted to see it again, and we were not disapointed, it was a beautiful performance. Our hotel room that night was not so good, it was extremely
Dance from the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua
This is not a real good photo, missed the womans face, however, caught the beautiful dress in action. These darn digital cameras have too much delay to catch the action real good. moldy and made us both rather congested. Actually we were glad when our noses got stuffed up in the night so we could no longer smell the mold. We got up real early and left in the a.m. so we could clear our nasal passages. We had stayed in the same room last year with no problem, what a difference a year makes. And, to boot, the price of the room had gone up from $8 a night to $10.
Another very noticeble difference this year is the decrease in the amount of litter. There are signs along the highway now saying littering is not permitted and we have seen crews picking up the trash. It is certainly not cleaned up completely, however, a very noticeable improvement.
After we left Masaya we took a bus to Diriamba, a small town that is more like a suburb of Jinotepe. They were having there annual Festival of Saint Sebastian, which our guidebook rates as the best festival in all of Nicaragua. It is the only festival we have attended, and I´ll tell you, it was something to see. It is a week long festival, we caught the last day. The
San Sebastian Festival in Diriamba
Here is a sample of some of the elaborate costumes worn by the dancers at the festival in Diriamba. What a great experience this was for us. Many of the dances performed predate the arrival of the Spanish by hundreds of years. The festival is an integration of pre-Columbian ritual with Catholicism. I was thankful that the guide book we are traveling with had a very detailed explanation of the festival. townspeople dress in colorful costumes and perform dances that they say predate the arrival of the Spanish. They perform at the park and then parade throughout the town all day, stopping traffic everywhere, even on the highway. The photos I got are incredible. I will include a few with this posting. There are very few english speaking people so we got to practice our Spanish. We found out we definitely need more lessons. We were lucky enough to run into a local gal who lives in California now and speaks good English. She took us to some VIP area of the festival and fed us a really nice breakfast and told us what activities were going on.
After all the parading there was a street dance with a very famous Nicaraguan band called Daddy Yankee or something like that. They played a lot of salsa and merengue tunes, and also what they are most famous for, latin hip hop. We had been hearing their hip hop music everywhere on the streets and in the disco. The kids at the house where we are staying in San Juan del Sur could not believe our luck to see this band at
More Costumes in Diriamba
These costumes were incredible. The photos don´t begin to catch the detail and handiwork that went into the crafting of these costumes. the street dance. It reminded me of the free concerts in Aspen when they bring in the big performances and the street gets packed full. It got so crowded we went back to our room for the second half. Our room was a block away and we could hear the rest of the concert just fine right from our room. They like their music loud, very loud!
Our busride back was interesting. Rather than the typical shool bus that we are used to riding, we rode two different vans. First a minivan where they stuffed in twelve people, all adults, then a larger 12 passenger van where they stuffed in 22 people, three of which were small children. Bear in mind that most of the passengers, including us, also had knapsacks and other cargo along with them. We get real close to the locals traveling in this fashion. It all adds to the adventure!
We will be leaving San Juan del Sur in the morning and heading up to the northern mountains. We will stay in Esteli, a town of around 100,000 people, where we will enroll in another Spanish school for a week or maybe two. There
Beautiful Senorita at the San Sebastian Festival in Diriamba
One of the many beautiful dancers at the festival in Diriamba. This festival was very memorable, and highly recommended by us to other travelers. Watch for it the third week in January each year. will be fewer English speaking people up there so we will be immersed in Spanish much more so than we have been so far. I don´t think we will stay with a local family, however, we want a little more freedom when it comes to eating. From Esteli we will be able to tour the mountain towns of Matagalpa and Jinotega. It will be a little cooler up there and the plant life will be different from what we have been seeing in the south. I am looking forward to touring the rainforests. The mountains are between 5000 and 6000 ft tall, the tallest in Nicaragua. No snow, however, we will most likely need jackets in the evening. Temperatures in the 50´s are common.
Well enough rambling, I´ll post a few more photos for your enjoyment.
Love from Kathy and Terry.
PS Johnny, it was great to hear that your surgery went so well. We will continue to pray for your recovery. Alice and Tom, thank you so much for updating me.
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Linn
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Darn Broncos
Don't know if you're getting football updates, but the Broncos lost to the Steelers 34-17. It was an ugly game with lots of mistakes. Aren't you glad to be there instead of Colorado where lots of folks are kinda depressed? Take care and have fun! Love, Linn